Transgender lives from an African perspective

We Are Here

We spend years searching for where we belong, searching for understanding. Understanding within ourselves and from the outside world. Finding understanding from the outer world is just as challenging as looking for understanding within. I mean, how would someone else understand you when you don’t even get it yourself?

Some of us take the journey within, to explore who we are. To discover our gender identity and what it means to us. Some of us numb that part of us. We do this as a coping mechanism, to survive. we completely block that part of us that feels different. It’s a personal journey. All of us choose different approaches when it comes to dealing with the incongruity in our sex assigned at birth and our gender identity. We’ve walked different paths, we’ve gone through different experiences. Most of us have untold stories of our silent daily struggles and accomplishments. We keep our lives a secret and totally obscured from the world. We struggle to fit it and blend well with the society’s standards. Mostly, its out of fear. Fear of rejection. Which comes in different forms ; verbal abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, arrests….name them. We are an easy target for the society’s ignorance. As the saying goes, ‘people fear what they don’t understand’. When it comes to transgender people, they don’t just fear, they attack.

Our voices are mostly unheard,especially from Africa. Sometimes we are deemed to non-existence. But this is the time to speak up,to stand up and say that we are here! We African trans people exist! We want to be heard!